New Delhi: Six years after it proposed to
bring the ITBP under its operational control along the China
border, the Army on Monday said there has been no progress on the
issue till now.
The proposal to bring the Indo-Tibetan Border Police
(ITBP) battalions on the China border was moved to the Defence
Ministry for "better border management" but till date there
has been no progress in this regard, Army sources said here.
They said such a move will help in improving real time
intelligence sharing and cohesion between the two forces
deployed along the Chinese boundary from Ladakh in Jammu and
Kashmir to Arunchal Pradesh in the northeast.
Along the 4,057 km Line of Actual Control (LAC) passing
through Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, the
sources said, the Army would coordinate the patrols and apply
border management practices in a better manner if the proposal
is accepted.
The patrolling programmes, they said, are issued by the
Army only for the paramilitary forces but there are problems
in sharing feedbacks and other information due to lack of such
arrangement.
In the aftermath of the Kargil war, the Centre had
accepted the suggestion of 'One border one force' for better
border management.
In the last couple of years, there have been a number of
reported transgressions by the Chinese into Indian territory
which have been downplayed by India.
In May 2009, two Chinese military helicopters had
violated air space and dropped rations on the Indian side of
the territory.
PTI
First Published: Monday, June 20, 2011, 20:31